Leviticus 24, Oil, Bread, Blasphemy

(This DRAFT study has been done fairly quickly, without the further guide of commentaries. I hope to improve on it later.)

We clean up a few regulations on the temple worship and deal with a blasphemer.

Leviticus 24:1-4, Continual light

The LORD said to Moses, "Command the Israelites to bring you clear oil of pressed olives for the light so that the lamps may be kept burning continually. Outside the curtain of the Testimony in the Tent of Meeting, Aaron is to tend the lamps before the LORD from evening till morning, continually. This is to be a lasting ordinance for the generations to come. The lamps on the pure gold lampstand before the LORD must be tended continually.  

The lamps in the temple must be lit all the time, 24 hours a day. Aaron is responsible for this.

Leviticus 24:5-9, A special bread

"Take fine flour and bake twelve loaves of bread, using two-tenths of an ephah for each loaf. Set them in two rows, six in each row, on the table of pure gold before the LORD. Along each row put some pure incense as a memorial portion to represent the bread and to be an offering made to the LORD by fire. This bread is to be set out before the LORD regularly, Sabbath after Sabbath, on behalf of the Israelites, as a  lasting covenant. It belongs to Aaron and his sons, who are to eat it in a holy place, because it is a most holy part of their regular share of the offerings made to the LORD by fire." 

The temple is to have twelve loads of bread, set out each Sabbath day. The bread is to be eaton by Aaron and his sons.

Leviticus 24:10-16, A blasphemer

Now the son of an Israelite mother and an Egyptian father went out among the Israelites, and a fight broke out in the camp between him and an Israelite. The son of the Israelite woman blasphemed the Name with a curse; so they brought him to Moses. (His mother's name was Shelomith, the daughter of Dibri the Danite.) They put him in custody until the will of the LORD should be made clear to them.  

Then the LORD said to Moses: "Take the blasphemer outside the camp. All those who heard him are to lay their hands on his head, and the entire assembly is to stone him. Say to the Israelites: `If anyone curses his God, he will be held responsible; anyone who blasphemes the name of the LORD must be put to death. The entire assembly must stone him. Whether an alien or native-born, when he blasphemes the Name, he must be put to death.  

The penalty for cursing with the name of YHWH is death by stoning.

Leviticus 24:17-21, Eye for eye

"`If anyone takes the life of a human being, he must be put to death. 

Anyone who takes the life of someone's animal must make restitution--life for life. 

If anyone injures his neighbor, whatever he has done must be  done to him: fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth. As he has injured the other, so he is to be injured.  

Whoever kills an animal must make restitution, but whoever kills a man must be put to death.

Punishment for these violent acts is to be measure for measure, lex talionis.

Leviticus 24:22, Fairness

You are to have the same law for the alien and the native-born. I am the LORD your God.'" 

The laws apply the same, whether to a native-born Israelite or a foreigner.

Leviticus 24:23, Blaphemer stoned

Then Moses spoke to the Israelites, and they took the blasphemer outside the camp and stoned him. The Israelites did as the LORD commanded Moses.   

After describing the laws for violence, including murder, the chapter ends with the report that the blasphemer, mentioned earlier, is stoned to death.

First published August 27, 2025; updated August 27, 2025